525i with a fat lip...

[madjeff]

Geez, now I get the whole road rage thing.

I was driving to work yesterday morning and was in the process of passing a semi on the freeway, who was following some damn redneck driving a beater truck with no tailgate and a bunch of crap blowing around the bed. Just as I came up even with the semi, one of those big heavy-duty plastic 5-gallon gas cans came flying out of the pickup bed, glanced off the semi's front tire, and flew right in front of me. I saw the blur as it went under the passenger side front and had just enough time to hope the damn thing was not full of gas and spraying fuel all over the car and engine compartment, only to go up in a nice big fireball.

As you can imagine, it made a nice big whack and horrendous grinding sound as it wedged under the front of the car, and I looked back to see pieces of plastic and debris flying out from under the car, and 3 lanes of traffic coming to a screeching halt behind me. I'm not sure if they thought I was going up in a fireball or what, but it was pretty funny after the fact. Anyway, I got the car over to the side of the road and got out, not sure if I had blown one of my new front tires or not. Luckily, the tire was ok, although i thought I was going to have to jack the front end up to get the can out from under the bumper. After yanking on it for 20-30 second I finally got it out.

I guess I should feel lucky, as the damage was not as bad as it sounded like. Here's the aftermath:





The foglight lens was intact (too bad as it's discolored and needs replacement anyway), although the mounts on the light bucket are toast, so I'll have to replace it. The real pisser is the cracked lip. I got on RealOEM and the damn trim panel is $460 to replace.

So, does anyone have any experience fixing a cracked lip? The lip itself is still pretty solid and I think repairable without looking too cheesy. Any helpful ideas would be greatly appreciated.

And of course, the pickup driver looked back, made eye contact as I was swerving all over the road, then kept on driving. Probably for the best, as I was not in a very cordial mood as I was screaming obscenities at the top of my lungs.

[winfred]

better then mine

piece of scrap metal the size of a home door mat bounced up in front of me and i had nowhere to go, i guess i was lucky i hit it flat and not edge on or it would of carved though the car maybe even skip off the hood and come though the windshield carving though me

[Alexlind123]

My lip is cracked. I got a quote of $300 to fix it.

[madjeff]

My lip is cracked. I got a quote of $300 to fix it.

Seems like the crack is clean enough I may be able to plastic weld it with some backing and it would look pretty good. I may have to try it and see what happens.

[CharlesAFerg]

My lip is cracked. I got a quote of $300 to fix it.

dude, you guys are really close to each other.

[shrike071]

That's a cinch to fix with some plastic-weld. Clean it up and grind a "V" into the crack - line up the parts and stick them together. Finish it up with a sanding and some paint.

"Gooder 'en new"

[aquapool]

It busted the lip, bent metal, & the damn thing ran waddled away.
Where might I find this Plastic Weld?

[winfred]

heres the first thing that came up on a search http://www.urethanesupply.com/storewelders.html search around you may find one cheeper then the $60 one, ebay and harbor freight are a couple sources

It busted the lip, bent metal, & the damn thing ran waddled away.
Where might I find this Plastic Weld?

[madjeff]

dude, you guys are really close to each other.

You are not that far away either...

[Macv]

Sorry about your luck. Seams like you're handling it better than I would.